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So, what's happening now?

Investigations will involve examinations of all the vehicles involved, with officers working with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) to do so.

Specially trained family liaison officers are working hard to support and locate the next of kin of all the victims, reports GloucestershireLive.

There will be a thorough examination of all the vehicles involved and Avon and Somerset Police are working closely with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA).

When is the M5 fully reopen ?

The motorway reopened fully at about 5pm on Monday when a lane of the northbound carriageway between junctions 15 and 14 was reopened.

What do eyewitnesses say?

Alex Morgan, a marine based in Plymouth, told Somerset Live he had been travelling to a wedding in Coventry when he saw the lorry nose down in a ditch and a car on its roof.

He said: "On approaching the vehicle I could already hear two children screaming and when looking inside they were both in the back suspended upside down from their seat belts.

"They were both fully conscious with no initial signs of serious bleeding or injury, so I unclipped the little girl's seatbelt and carried her out as others worked to extinguish the front of the vehicle."

He told the news website he then pulled a young boy from the car and later helped to remove an injured woman from the vehicle.

Cardiologist Amer Hamed, who was in a car travelling "10 to 20 seconds behind" the crash, told the BBC: "There was a lorry involved and at least two other cars. One was absolutely destroyed and another had flipped over."

Along with other medically trained motorists, he stopped to help an injured woman.

Superintendent Simon Ellis said: "Emergency service personnel have been working tirelessly at the scene in harrowing conditions and I'd like to praise them for the work they've done and are still doing.